Monday, July 22, 2013

My Twenty-Fourth Book

The Abnormalities of Stringent Strange has been published at last, three and a half years after I sat down and wrote it. My apologies to all those who pre-ordered it for the delays! This first print run is the signed limited edition and there are only 88 copies, each one given the name of one of the 88 official constellations. The trade paperback will follow.

So I went to London last week to meet up with Paul Spiteri, the British partner of the publishing firm Meteor House. Paul turned out to be a generous and delightful host. We sat in his implausibly large garden drinking coffee watching foxes and deer... I signed the print run and then we went into central London for the launch itself.

It wasn't really a launch, in other words a formal event with readings, etc, but an informal gathering of anyone who wanted to turn up. I chose the Princess Louise pub in High Holborn as a meeting place, because it was the only London pub whose name I could remember. As it happened, the last time I was there was back in 1998, and I had forgotten that it's one of the weirdest pubs imaginable.

There are many doors on the outside and inside too, and they all seem to lead to tiny little cubbyholes facing a section of bar, and it's possible to see other cubbyholes across this bar but not to reach them. To change cubbyholes you have leave and go back out and then back in... The place is more like a hive than a normal building. So it's not the obvious place to meet people you have never seen before...

But the upstairs room was open and that is just a normal space and that's where we ended up, so it all turned out well... In fact this booklaunch was one of the more enjoyable ones. I guess that after 24 published books I've become a bit blasé about these things, and in fact I wasn't anticipating anything special, but it turned out to be great, and this was due entirely to the people I met. So a big THANKS to them...I left London on Friday and returned to Swansea on a very slow bus (traffic!) and arrived just in time to pop along to the opening of the new Elysium Gallery. It was a fine show, one of the best local art shows I have been to in a long time. Very varied and a bit freaky. One of the artworks was a miniature personal disco, perfect for solo dancing. I was still on a high from the booklaunch so it seemed a good way to celebrate...

And now it's back to work I suppose. With luck I should be having another three or four books out in 2013, The Just Not So Stories and The Young Dictator and The Lunar Tickle and (maybe) The Senile Pagodas. There might be launches for the first three but probably not for the fourth. I will post updates on my blog the moment I know anything, of course....

Anyone who wants to buy a copy of The Abnormalities of Stringent Strange should do so directly from the publisher by visiting their website. I'm not sure when the trade paperback will be available but it shouldn't be too long a wait.

It feels good to finally launch Stringent... I just hope he remembers how to fly!